For College Initiative, An A-team

Perez's Panel Includes Top Educators

A blue-ribbon commission on higher education announced Thursday by Mayor Eddie A. Perez has an impressive cast, including four college presidents, and an ambitious goal: increasing the paltry college-enrollment rate of Hartford students.

The effort announced at city hall was immediately applauded by educators and others, but their applause was tempered by a belief that encouraging more city children to pursue a four-year college degree will require myriad and expensive reforms.

One of the members of the new commission, University of Connecticut President Philip Austin, suggested that the effort would not fully pay off for 10 years, even though Perez wants to see a 25 percent increase in just four years.

``It's a great idea,'' said Timothy Murphy, the president of the Hartford teachers' union. ``But the task that they are taking on is enormous. What I suspect that the commission will find out is that the problem is more complicated than people think.''

Producing more college-ready students will involve improving curriculum and support services, starting in elementary schools, Murphy said.

Only 240 of the 790 who graduated from Hartford high schools last year enrolled in four-year colleges. Based on U.S. studies of urban students, Perez said, fewer than half will earn a degree.

Perez said he is taking an approach broader than previously attempted in Hartford, recruiting commission members from the worlds of higher education, philanthropy, business and private secondary schools to devise a plan in just 90 days.

``Implementation will begin on the 91st day,'' Perez said.

Perez, who has been meeting privately for weeks with educators about the initiative, said some gains can be made by increasing outreach and -- in what could cause tension with public-school teachers -- by directing some students to private secondary schools to prepare for college.

Officials from the region's private schools said they're thrilled Perez wants to include them in his initiative. Charles Cahn, the headmaster-elect of Suffield Academy, and Northwest Catholic High School President Michael Griffin are on the commission.

A couple of hundred Hartford students already attend private schools, said Peter Tacy, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools. The schools, which offer financial aid and scholarships to students, have trouble tapping into Hartford's vein of talented students and marketing themselves, he said.

``Anything that will help these schools identify promising students, they will welcome,'' Tacy said. ``Most Hartford families don't know the opportunity is there.''

Tom Southworth, director of admissions for Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, said Perez met with representatives from his and other schools in November. ``It was his express hope more Hartford kids would find their way into our schools,'' he said.

Southworth was delighted, he said, because he has found that Hartford parents who don't come from families with a tradition of sending children to private school have never even heard of Loomis. To remedy that, Loomis has hosted admissions receptions at the Artists Collective in Hartford's North End for the past few years.

Perez is hoping corporations and universities will sponsor scholarships for Hartford students at the colleges. The private high schools already offer millions in financial aid.

Loomis, for example, has a budget of $4 million for financial aid each year, and more than 30 percent of the students receive aid, Southworth said. At Renbrook School in West Hartford, which runs from preschool through ninth grade, 20 percent of the students receive financial aid.

But the private school largesse is not likely to be uniformly welcomed. Hartford principals already have complained about the loss of their brightest students and most involved parents to magnet schools. A better relationship with private schools could exacerbate that talent drain, Murphy said.

So be it, Perez said.

``I don't apologize for expanding opportunities for Hartford kids,'' he said. ``This is an enhancement. I know there's an issue of a brain drain and resource drain, but this is about increasing opportunities for families and kids.''

Robert Henry, Hartford's superintendent, said the commission's work will bolster the city's programs. It will set specific goals, he said, such as increasing the number of students who take the SAT and aligning high school curriculum with college courses.

The commission's leaders are Henry and Estela Lopez, the vice chancellor of the Connecticut State University system. Four college presidents are members: UConn's Austin, Walter Harrison of the University of Hartford, David G. Carter of Eastern Connecticut State University and Ira Rubenzahl of Capital Community College of Hartford.

Perez said he expected the university presidents to designate subordinates to serve and was delighted the presidents chose to be directly involved.

Austin praised Perez for undertaking such a project, saying most elected leaders would shy away from a process whose payoff could take 10 years.

Perez, who is eight days into a four-year term as mayor, said he will expect some returns by the end of his term. He smiled and said, ``I think in four-year bites now.''